Thursday, December 23, 2010

Salve,
I've got this new painting program - Sketchbook Pro 2011 (merci Maarcin for pointing it to me -:) ) and decided to draw this sketch, this is quasi-Swedish/German cavalryman (been reading about these pesky Swedish, Finnish, Latvia and German horsemen-enemies of the Polish horsemen during the Deluge, they were quite great warriors and riders in their own right) .
As I am looking at this 'digital painting' I am thinking that perhaps he will need his horse or a saddle at least at his feet when he is done - :)

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Salve,
as I have been giving links here to various Wikipedia articles, I have noticed that they do contain plenty of errors or misleading information when come to history and often geography.
It is my intention to work on some of them, eg. Polish hussars, battle of Wojnicz (gathering sources and there are plenty of these, and Radek Sikora had found already quite a few), battle of Klecko (started correcting en.wikipedia.org/Battle_of_Klecko ) battle of Golab, and many others.

.... about a week ago my good friend Radek Sikora noticed that something was seriously wrong with the Polish Wikipedia entry on the battle of Chojnice (1657) - he started correcting it but then his corrections are still not evident (waiting for approval by some authority :( pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitwa_pod_Chojnicami_1657 ).
English Wikipedia version of the same topic was even worse (the title states erroneously that it is a battle of AD1656 - here you can see already somewhat corrected entry by trully yours en.wikipedia.org/Battle_of_Chojnice_(1656) ) so I, with Radek's encouragement and comments, went to correct or rather write from the scratch the entire article.
The battle took place during the so called Deluge or the 2nd Northern War, involving Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Denmark, Holy Roman Empire, Muscovite Russian Empire, Crimean Tatars, Ukrainian Cossacks etc.

This my blog version of this article, still in development, in the spirit of the winter season we have right now in the Northern Hemisphere, 3 days before Christmas :

Prelude to the battle

Towards the end of 1656, Swedish army was blocking our Polish King John Casimir in Gransk/Danzig who was there conducting diplomatic negotiations with French King Louis XIVenvoy Antoine de Lumbres. His wife and Polish Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga wanted to join her husband there but she needed the Polish armies to open a passage to Gdańsk through the blockading Swedish armies. According to some sources her enemy but supposedly very chivalrous Charles X Gustav of Sweden was willing to allow Her Majesty to cross over from Wielkopolska to her husband in Pomerania, but she refused this courtesy relying instead on her regimentarz and very famous cavalry commander and zagonczyk Stefan Czarniecki (he will be a subject of my future writings, amongst other things since his saddles are said to be at the National Museum in Cracow and Polish Army Museum in Warsaw, and he was depicted in man fine paitnings), stationed with his division at Piotrków Trybunalski (old Polish, albeit short-lived, capital).

Czarniecki ordered his cavalry and dragons to quit winter quarters and soon he came to Wolbórz where she was stationed and together they begun so called 'Gdańsk expedition.'

Before January 1, 1657 Czarniecki with his division and Her Majesty the Queen and her courtiers with her own wagon train in his wagon train came to Chojnice. Also Polish army divisions of Grand Crown Hetman Stanisław Rewera Potocki and Field Crown Hetman Stanisław Lanckoroński joined them at Chojnice about the same time, although they were coming south form Pomerania. As it was military custom then Polish cavalry companies settled in the surrounding countryside, occupying villages and being separated one from another by distance, need for fodder and food, and winter snows.

Battle

Swedish King must have received information about these winter movements and concentration of the Polish army divisions around Chojnice during the last days of 1656 and perhaps grew worried as they could have been preparing to assault Ducal Prussia etc. Apparently Swedish forced started marching towards Chojnice, while good and brave Swedish king Carolus X Gustavus ordered other Swedish forces near the town to scout and reconnoiter the Chojnice area, perhaps intending to surprise Poles in their winter lodgings. Swedish cavalry command under Rutger von Ascheberg, stationed around the castle at Złotow, came up to Chojnice on the night od January 2, 1657, and using a captured peasant to lead them then this cavalry force attacked using their 950 horsemen (reitars) . His command attacked the following Polish formations: pułk of prince Dymitr (according to Pamietniki Losia) Wiśniowiecki, banners of Jan Sobieski and Koniecpolski, that were stationed 'in the middle' of Polish spread out cavalry forces.

According to Polish writer and participant of this battle Los these Polish cavalry commands were very small, understaffed and spread out, also perhaps still celebrating New Year with drink and food, and thus unprepared for surprise night or early morning attack. Polish losses, listed for the battle, were sustained during that phase of the battle - according to des Noyers' reports.

Runaways. often without saddles and only in their undergarments, from the Wisniowiecki's command spread the alarm across the entire town of Chojnice and surrounding Polish war camps.

Meantime Swedish cavalry did what they would normally do - collect booty, especially fine Polish horses, foodstuffs, captured goods and equipment, several prisoners, and sent them to the rear. It must have slowed their pursuit of Polish cavalry and it t gave ample time to other Polish units to assemble and meet the enemy on equal terms and use their numerical superiority.

Ar some moment this night fighting might have reached the queen's wagon train and she had to seek shelter, perhaps in the town itself (?). But other memoirists do not write about HMQ being in danger, but rather encouraging her soldiers to stand and fight and actually sending Czarniecki division into the battle. Once HMQ gave blessing to Czarniecki, then his command went to the rescue of what it was left of prince Wisniowiecki pulk. And perhaps other Polish army divisions came to give more coordinated response to the Swedish vanguard onslaught, and as the break of dawn of January 3, 1657 was slowly approaching.

As dawn January 3, 1657 came the quite victorious Swedish commander must have realized that he had stepped into the hornets' nest and begun hasty retreat - according to des Noyers 'bride abattue.'

His command retreat was towards the old Teutonic Knights fortress at Czŀuchów, in Swedish hands. The surprise night attack came to cost him dearly, as Czarniecki's cavalry pursued him without mercy, and Swedish command never turned their head to face their pursuers, and his retreat turned into run-and-chase battle, and thus Swedish cavalry became Polish prey, sustaining some 300 dead and many taken prisoners - including 50 Frenchmen serving with the Swedes ( Czarniecki brought them back to his queen and she secured their release, most likely into the Polish army not-so-voluntary enlistment), and amongst other trophies Poles captured 3 cavalry banners) .

As stated Swedish cavalry found refuge in the Czŀuchów castle and the fortress soldiers fired their artillery at the pursuing light Polish cavalry who then naturally abandoned their pursuit ) chasing the Swedes for at least 2 Polish miles or some 14 kilometers ). Being the light cavalry unprepared to assault this old Teutonic stronghold and perhaps in light of rumors about the king Charles X Gustav forces on a march towards Chojnice.

Therefore shortly after their disengagement from the pursuit of the Swedish cavalry, the Polish commanders decided to avoid any further engagement with the Swedes and to withdraw their force and wagon trains from Chojnice towards Nakło nad Notecią, which they reached marching through the winter roads on January 7, 1658.

Polish army sustained rather light causalities: less than 50 killed and wounded, and 9 taken prisoner, as I said before unknown numbers of horses and Polish wagons were also taken in this Swedish initial surprise attack.

It appears that this Swedish cavalry command sustained some 35-45% losses of their initial numbers and perhaps their losses was severely missed during later weeks when pursing Czarniecki and our brave Queen on their march towards Gdansk.

Aftermath

From their camp at Kcynia near Nakło Polish commanders and her majesty queen haggled a bit about the pay for the soldiers with the soldiers themselves, who had demanded it or threatened to march away. Marie Louise Gonzaga decided to take matters in her own hands (she was a great 'statesman' and of warrior's heart) and promised to pay soldiers from her own sources. As a result Czarniecki (with 6000 cavalry or some others say 2000 cavalry) and Her Majesty Queen (and her wagon train and courtiers) went on to complete their Gdańsk Expedition and eventually joined their Polish king at Gdańsk after some more feints and scrimmages with the 'blinded' Swedish commands.

The other Polish commanders stayed south of Gdansk Pomerania. They were to fight many more battles against the Swedes and their allies in the upcoming months and years, as one of the heaviest fighting was awaiting them yet.

I am yet to read Patrick Gordon's account (Scottish mercenary in Swedish, Polish and Muscovite service) – he served in the Swedish army during that time – winter 1656/67.

I wish for some Swedish and German sources, but they tend to vastly exaggerate Polish losses and diminish their own – eg Pufendorf whose writing always has thousands of Poles perishing and Swedes with almost no casualties.

Bohdan Królikowski, Błażeja Siennickiego przypadki wojenne osobliwsze, Warszawa 1978, p.147-153. - this is a very fine work of literature written by Lublin-based university professor, academician and fine historical writer, with many books on the history of Polish horsemen and cavalry.

post scriptum

according to the sources the Polish banners and companies fighting at Chojnice came from the light cavalry and pancerny (raised mostly to substitute the ever-lacking winged hussar cavalry) cavalry, and some dragons - in fact Polish dragons just used horses to get to and from the battle, being mounted infantry. Here I tried to paint, using Gimp and MyPaint, a winter clad pancerny companion, armed with a 'dzida' or rohatyna with a small pennon, bow and arrows, pistols and sabre. He has chain-mail armor and vambraces to protect his forearms.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

this is the last one today - progress on some old sketch of mine that needs finishing.

I decided to dress him in more appropriate XVI century Western armor, with a shorter an wider sabre, but with a 'shishak' helmet as shown many late XVI century Polish funerary relieves in some Polish churches eg. at Oliwa Cathedral shown in this photo hussars at Oliwa . I may put his wildcat skin over the horse, I am not sure yet.

He was mostly painted with MyPaint and some Gimp resizing etc. More finished sketch will follow soon, I hope.

I am also planing to show several Hungarian hussars of the same period, with armor and weapons, Slovakian and Hungarian photos of funeral effigies provided to me by Samuel :)

Meantime, have been looking at this one XIV century Seldjuk manuscript showing mounted warfare (got it form various Dr. David Nicolle books and articles) and various weapons, some related to the Polish hussars - :) (by the way some passionate person does wonderful reenactment of a Seldjuk warrior here Seldjuk reenactment )

Finally I just got from my new friendly library, interlibrary loan, a book by Dr Colin Taylor titled Sun'ka Wakan, Sacred Horses of the Plains: Ethos and Regalia. - glimpsed at the content and illustrations - wonders, my fellow net travelers, wonders in there!
ps
I have got to fly across the frozen USA this weekend, hope all will work at the airports
ps'
I bought ArtRage Studio Pro as suggested by Jan, we shall see if it works well for me :)

this work is really a reworking of a late XVII century image from a painting showing election (Polish-Lithuanian nobles elected their kings wikipedia.org Free_election ). I do not have a large copy of the painting (shown here in this book cover historycy.org 3277 ) so I decided to 're-create' this late XVII century hussar, amongst other sources using this early XVIII century painting wikimedia.org/ Kalisz1706.jpg showing Polish-Russian victory over the Polish-Saxon forces during the Great Northern War .wikipedia.org Great_Northern_War at the ancient city of Kalish (Roman Calisia).
Progress will happen after the holidays (Christmas and New Year etc ).

ps
would like to welcome new follower of my blog and comment on the fine work my internet friend and follower of my blog Michal/Kadrinazi is doing on his own blog!!! Michal has got me going on on the subject of falconry, and some talk on this pages should follow... ojala!

some little work has been restarted lately - the idea is that a winged hussar is trying to use his horse's weight and hooves to break the fence blocking his company/banner path.

It came about when we, Radek Sikora and I, were discussing possibilities of Polish hussars breaking the wooden fence at Klushino field. More finished versions were done then dariocaballeros.blogspot.com/2009/04/kluszyn-or-klushino-ad-1610.html , and this drawing had remained a sketch for some time until I decided to work on it with GIMP and MyPaint.
Progress work I will show some time later, I hope. Depends on Santa how soon - :)

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Salve,
on Polish history forum one of the users, nicknamed after a great Polish warrior of the XVII century Hieronim Lubomirski, provided a link historycy.org byczyna to a fragment of the 1980s Polish TV series titled 'Kanclerz' (the Chancellor) where this intesting battle Polish-Hungarian-German has been depicted - here is the link - Byczyna

Please do note this is a TV film and it does have all the shortcomings of such non-historic media presentation, with all the multiple faults and omissions present, i.e. too short lancers, winged hussars charging as if a mob of hunters and steeplechasers etc. But it offers a feeling of how winged hussars, post-Stephen Bathory reforms, might have looked, and the foggy nature of the weather in the film is a nice attempt to show the actual conditions of the Byczyna battle. Actually this film, made at the end of the Soviet Poland is not a bad work, and perhaps not as puffed up as a period work by one Polish film director who did 'slaughter' Sienkiewicz's 'With Fire and Sword.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_Fire_and_Sword wiki/With_Fire_and_Sword film

This was one of the more curious battles of the Polish XVI century warfare, but for now please let me leave it at that.

The image above - some time ago I showed some very old drawings of mine here, one of them old-watercolor-pen-ink-old I was intended to show Polish pancerny (medium cavalry) of the Deluge en.wikipedia.org Deluge history and King Jan III Sobieski's era, and today I had some time and so I worked on the old drawing (ink and watercolor) with GIMP and MyPaint. I hope the results are evident - although more work remains to be done - :)

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Salve,
I would like to share my latest discovery of sorts - a more that 20 drawings XVI century drawings showing Renaissance warriors, horse harness, armor and horse tack Victoria and Albert Museum in UK.

I must say that I love the European Renaissance period for their armor and paintings, and also because, a little sadly, during this period the artists-armourers sung their swan song when comes to the knightly armor.
well, nevertheless, before full armor suits gave way to courtly dresses of French court and uniforms of Louis XIV armies, there was this period of great flowering of knightly fine arts and design, especially in Milan and Nuremberg. Goldsmiths, painters, designers and sculptors worked on the final stage in the development of European knightly armor, because of the Renaissance interest in the Antiquity and its arts, they started decorating armor with Roman and Greek ancient fashions.
One of the most famously known workshops was the Milanese armourer Filippo Negroli shop/atelier en.wikipedia Filippo_Negroli , example of his work Burgonet alla Romana Antica - I could not more warmly recommend a book, produced by the Metropolitan Museum of Arts, titled Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance, you can get it from the net eg amazon.com/Heroic-Armor-Italian-Renaissance-Stuart , full of scholarly articles on the subject of XVI century armor and illustrated with prints, paintings, photos of actual armor, and drawings of actual designs.
In that book I came across drawings of Filippo Orsoni, little known Italian painter and designer, showing a fanciful rider dressed for a horse masquerade/parade or horse carousel. Another drawing shown in that book was a designed set of armor of alla antica type (nice introduction in this MET article with bibliography metmuseum.org renaissance armor ) for the dashing French monarch Henri II (got to write one on the fine chivalrous king), in this painting he is still a dauphin of France, dressed in wonderfully adorned half-armor riding a curb-bitted but very fine gray stallion with tied-up tail in a equally splendid war saddle:

This small painting was done by a famous portraiture painter Francois Clouet en.wikipedia. Clouet is one of several paintings showing Henri II riding his horses, the king who was known for his passion for horses, hunting, war and one beautiful mistress.

Finally, there is the link to the Victoria and Albert Musem album, well, small part of it, in their display.
Please note you will find on page 18 see a hussar-costumed rider ridding a fine horse, wearing a plumed shishak, armed with a painted lance and Balkan shield; also a Turkish rider and an armoured knightly rider; and a chart showing a war horse depicting potential equine illness - all and all fine drawings, too bad only 20 out of 306 vam.ac.uk filippo_orsoni

Monday, December 6, 2010

Salve,
myanda ( Mongolian for sworn-brother ) Patryk Skupniewicz provided me to a link to a news article from the Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies www.cais-soas.com/news the-return-of-colours , regrading already closed exhibit in the Yapi Kredi Vedat Nedim Tör Museum in Turkey - The subject matter is the reconstructed 470BC Tatarli Tumulus and beautiful paintings on wood contained herein.
here you can see charging Achaemenid hippotaxotai archer cavalry, armed in two kinds of bows: www.cais-soas.com/horse archers
Note horse harness (interesting bridle with a bosal?) and long saddle blankets -shabraques, unfortunately the image is cut off at the horse's croup and we cannot see the tied tails, another typical Achaemenid Iranian and Eurasian steppe tradition.

and in addition a couple of my own drawings and sketches-in progress showing Achaemenid warriors
ps
would like to welcome all new followers - thank you for your interest
ps'
by the way I joined this blog - splendid display of drawings and on the subject comic book images creation - by one of the finest 'ink' artists out there Marcos Mateu-Mestre http://marcosmateu.blogspot.com/
Marcos has a very new book on comics making titled 'Framed Ink' amazon.com/Framed-Ink-Drawing-Composition-Storytellers

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Salve,
Renaissance art is full of horses, and while looking for some examples of Alphonse de Nueville art ( Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe_de_Neuville great French military and equine painter of XIX century) I found two nice Renaissance drawings from France. I find them quite intriguing as they show rather large horses, most likely stallions or geldings, in harness outfits that resemble Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque carousels (equine festivals with equine games and displays of courtly ridding).

Ad rem, the French net library/depository 'Joconde' offers us these two fine ink wash drawings from the 3rd quarter of XVI century by the workshop of Niccolo dell'Abbate dell'Abbate , Italian artist who worked in XVI century France and was one of the masters of the Fontainebleau School.

In the first drawing we can see a page holding a saddled parade horse, dressed for occasion. It seems to me that our messer Niccolo or his pupil was showing a proposed design for a horse parade outfit, most likely intended for his royal masters, the House de Valois as horse furniture/harness in this painting showing Francis I and H.R. Emperor Charles V Franz_I_und_Karl_V or in this famous full armor portrait of Francis I, nota bene we need to examine it in the future as opposed to the Titian's Charles V portrait , commons FrancoisI I France.jpg Tizian Charles V . Besides the flamboyant harness we can observe a very nicely decorated war saddle, long stirrup leathers, long curb-bit (long shanks), two cinches/girths.

Drawing below shows a page riding another caparisoned horse. Here we got this beautifully drawn example of a gaited horse, ridden by a page with one hand in a really long-shanked curb-bit. Please note that the saddle is different from the one above, it is not a war saddle per se, as it seems to lack the extended thigh protectors characteristic to XV-XVI century war saddles, or perhaps it represents the new type of Western European saddle. Again we see two cinches/girths and long stirrup leathers. The style of ridding, long stirrups etc, seems to be what the Spanish and Portugese called ' la brida.'
This bridle, like the one above, has a not throatlatch per se, but there is a second 'headstall' attached to the proper headstall acting both a throatlatch and a suspender for a small tassel, done in the ancient Turkish/Islamic/Mongol fashion.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Salve,
English travelers' accounts of their voyages during have of the XVI-XIX have been great source of information for this blog, my friend Radek found some interesting account of the 1770s uhlan regiment, serving as a household unit of the King of Poland:

Ulans or Uhlans for the King The king has a corps of 2000 troops in his own pay, and entirely dependent upon himself. These troops consist chiefly of Ulans or light horse, who furnish alternately the escort which accompanies his majesty. We saw a small party, about thirty, who were encamped near his villa, and had afterwards an opportunity of examining them more minutely. The Ulans are chiefly Tartars, many of them Mahometans, and are greatly to be relied on for their fidelity. The corps is composed of gentlemen and vassals : they all form in squadron together, but are differently armed ; they both indiscriminately carry sabres and pistols, but the gentlemen only bear lances of about ten feet long ; instead of which, the others are armed with carabines. Their dress is a high fur cap, a green and red jacket, pantaloons of the fame colour, which cover the boots as low as the ankle; and a petticoat of white cloth descending to the knee*. Their heads are all shaved after the Polish manner. Their lances, at the end of which is fastened a long swallow-tailed flag [pennon] of black and red cloth, are shorter and weaker than those of the Austrian Croats, but they carry and use them much in the same manner, and with no less dexterity. The men were of different sizes, and seemed fine and well-grown, but were greatly disfigured with their petticoats and pantaloons.
Polish horses for light cavalryThe horses on which they were mounted. were about fourteen hands high, of remarkable spirit, with great strength of shoulder. Poland is much esteemed for its breed of horses; and the king of Prussia procures his light cavalry from this country.
On the ruin of the Polish horses

The breed, however, has been almost ruined during the late civil wars*, and the nobility are now chiefly supplied from Tartary.

Coxe, Travels vol1 (page 140)
* I intend to draw and paint several reconstructions of these Royal Uhlans (ulans) - pan Bronislaw Gembarzewski premier military uniform historian from Poland seen in this relief B.Gembarzewski , in his monumental work 'Polish Soldier - arms and equipment' vol II has some interesting reconstructions and cites sources for the Royal Uhlans, from 1770s through 1794.
*Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish-Lithuanian_Commonwealth under the Saxon kings was subject to increasing Russian influence during the first half of XVIII century, and after the last Polish king, Stanislaw August Poniatowski S_A_Poniatowski - his election at Wola was subject to some paintings showing Polish horses eg Election_of_Stanislaw_II_August_of_Poland_at_Wola muzeum w Poznaniu , was elected with full support of the Russian army bayonets, coercion and money PLC become Russian protectorate. Enraged patriotic elements of nobility declared a confederacy (at the ancient fortress of Bar in present Ukraine) and civil war erupted, but it has to be stressed that quickly the Polish-Lithuanian royal armies had been replaced by the Russian forces that had battled Bar Confederates troops for 4 years - wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Confederation
The end of Bar Confederacy resistance spurred three black eagles: Russia, Prussia and Austrian Empire cease the moment and to take some defenseless Polish-Lithuanian territory. Russia received the least developed areas but Prussia took the ethnically Polish territories of northern Poland and begun infamous Prussian robbery of Polish-Lithuanian foreign commerce profits and in the end caused the economic strangulation of the country (including counterfeiting Polish currency and imposing huge tariffs on PLC agricultural exports and other commerce), while the losses to Austria were painful because they took some of the best cities ( the Royal city of Lwow-Lviv, returned in 1918 to be again stolen from Poland in 1939 and 1944 by the 1st class world murderer and genocidal tyrant J. Stalin ), most populated areas of the country, including the horse breeding areas of southern Poland - it was the so called First Partition of Poland wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Partition_of_Poland

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Salve,
Last month I visited the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and came across some Mustangs (aka wild horses) that had been captured by the BLM (Bureau of Land management) and sold of at a public auction.

Horses in these pictures come from Nevada and Wyoming, captured at a tender age of 1 year (yearlings), and since then have been living in a green pasture close to Elicot, Co. Note that until the summer the gray gelding had been a stallion.

In these pictures you can not see clearly but they do have the BLM freeze markings and I will add some more where they are visible.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

I added double reins and a curb-bit (Polish. munsztunk) on a horse, made horse's neck a bit longer; on the officer - a longer beard (hope you like it better, Kadrinazi), and then some other little equipment parts that make this soldier appear more 'historic'
pa ka

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Salve,
today a little too forgotten painter of the Munich School of Polish painting:
Władysław Szerner agraart.pl szerner , born in 1839, studied art at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts beginning in 1862. Unfortunately for his studies one year later, when Motherland called, he, a very promising artist, joined the Polish army during the 1863 January Uprising http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_Uprising . As we know the January uprising ended in defeat and pan (Mr.) Szerner was forced to emigrate after the defeat to France and eventually settled in Bavaria.
After studies at the Munich Art Academy - with various German masters, Alexander Wagner, Hermann Anschütz and Alexander Strähuber, he became an independent artist, and his atellier was next to the famous one of Jozef Brandt, and these two Polish artist became fast friends, especially because they shared similar interest in Polish history and genre paintings. Their freindship lasted for life and Pan Szerner often traveled with Brandt to his estate in Oronsko, near Radom, and partook in Brandt's excursions to the Old Polish Borderland aka Kresy (Ukraine). Being a member of Munich Kunstverein kunstverein-muenchen.de , he exhibited there from 1874 until 1909, as well as in Lwow(Lviv), Cracow and Warsaw. He was admired by many literary personages of the XIX century Poland, eg J.I. Kraszewski en.wikipedia.org Kraszewski prized him for being able to capture scenes of Poland's countryside au naturel, with believable detail and with joyful flavour so characteristic of these picturesque sites .
He not only painted horses and the images of Old Poland, but also was a skilled graphic artist and draughtsman, and was able to copy in pencil many famous paintings by his friend Brandt so they could be engraved and printed in various contemporary periodicals, eg 'Kłosy' and 'Tygodnik Ilustrowany' of Warsaw, to the delight of many a reader.
Later on he started painting the 'exotique' and wonderfully colorful inhabitants of the eastern Carpathian Mountians - the Huculs (Hutzuls).
His art is in many private collections, and his works fetch reasonable prices at auctions. He had a son, also a painter, and their quite similar works can be subject to forgeries, as father's works are more expensive nowadays.

salve,
todays image came about when I was looking at the paintings of the Polish XIX century painter (and the XIX century Munich School of Polish painting main persona) : Jozef Brandt, whose horses, from the Old noble Polish Ukraine, were splendid creatures of legend and reality, both at the same time :)
a nice display of 'mosci' Jozef Brandt's art - pinakoteka.zascianek.pl/Brandt

This the effect of my 2 hour afternoon study in digital brushwork - Mypaint and Gimp PS, great open source software for Linux Ubuntu.

'

ps
a little peek at the horse and military art on the Internet:
by chance I found this fine artwork of Spanish military history painter (uses acrylics and watercolor) Angel Garcia Pinto and his blog. I must say that Señor Pinto's blog is a splendid display of his gorgeous historical illustration - angelgpinto.blogspot

the next artist's brushwork is fantastic: he hauls from Catalunia (province of Spain) and he is the most exceptional painter of horses and Spanish XIX century military history - don Augusto Ferrer Dalmau - arteclasic.com

Salve,
this past July there was 600 anniversary of the battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg) and Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian victory over the Western European knights and Teutonic Kinghts.
I started working on this piece a while ago - it is far from finished, perhaps too far. It purports to show a Lwow banner 'ensign' mounted on his faithful 'dextrarius' aka English language 'destrier' - I am not going to refer here to the Wikipedia page on the subject as it is not a good entry.

Salve,
some native Amerindian themes, I hope to do many more in the future, especially Cheyennes (I admit I have been looking at the XIX century Cheyenne Ledger art) and Comanches and Utes (been lately to a old battlefield place where more than 160 years ago Comanches and Utes fought, and 240 years ago Spanish-Apache-Pueblo expedition was crossing the Continental Divide searching for the Cuerno Verde's Comanches)

Friday, November 19, 2010

Salve,
this one is reworking of an old sketch into a new image, this time he is going to be a Ottoman Turkish cavalryman or .. well, whether an akinci, delier or sipahi I do not know yet. Time period XVI century CE.

Salve,
I am working on this little animated one, this time i cannot decide what kind of weapons to give to this fellow - a kozak cavalryman (not a Cossack) or Polish-Lithuanian light rider. Wearing a zupan, bare-headed, with his bow and arrow, and faithful sabre... the rest it is still to be seen

Salve,
a bit of improvement work on this old painting that has never been finished - purports to show Gallic horsemen of the second half of I century BC.
Hopefully I will finish this one and another that shows a horseman hunting a wild boar

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Salve,
Our ancestors loved to eat and drink, and only the coming of the Soviet Poland known as PRL (from 1945-90) almost destroyed our national culinary arts. Alas they have been coming back and old recipes have been brought back, and especially Polish meat smoking and fermented sausage making has been having a 'Renaissance' of sorts in Poland and... in the United States and Canada - in the North American there is a bunch of Polish meat making afficionados who collaborated on 3 books already, eg available on Amazon Stanley-Marianski
Note that it is not easy to obtain some good organic pork these days around New York City (as oppose to Montreal, Canada) nor good organic natural (cleaned tripes) casing is readily available.
...this past September my friendWaldi (Waldemar Kozik who also is a friend and collaborator of Mr Marianski ) went to the Catskills (mountains in New York about 2 hours drive from NYC). The purpose of the trip was to ... smoke some Polish sausages he had made based on Old Poland recipes. Valdi gets most of his meats from this one great Greek butcher shop (albeit some Puertoricans and Dominicans work there too, it is the Big Apple after all) in Astoria, Queens. We go there to get some good Kalamata lives, oil and other great Greek goods - in XVII century our ancestors had Armenian and Turkish merchants bring saffron, cinnamon, cumin, wine from Hungary and further south, Greek raisins, Persian raisins and dates, and other Eastern delicacies so their food was very spice-ed up, but not 'hot' or picante/caliente in Thai or Mexican style. I am not a specialist on the food history so let us leave the food history and get back to our story.
Valdi came back after a week, looking very 'mountain man' :) and only his faithful Tibetan Lhasa Apso 'Zack' saved his skin and brought him back to civilization, while his coolers were full of wonderfully smoked sausages and meats.
Naturally as friend do, we then had a 'potlatch' ( in a Polish tradition) and some sausages were brought forth: Lisiecka (favorite of our beloved pope John Paul II), Krakowska Dry (still drying :) ), Hunter (Mysliwska), dark venison sausage (made out of whitetail deer meat) and Wiejska (Country natural) along with some 'nalewka' and other stronger spirits from Poland (eg Debowa - oak vodka).
You can see the sausages on these two pictures:
here are sliced Hunter, thick Krakowska in slices and one piece, and Country natural also sliced.

and here is the venison one with the other three sliced and in a pieces.

Valdi is a master of his art (and also a fine photographer) , and in order to try his delicious sausages even some of the New York rich and famous ask him to share his artfully made sausages, smoked salmon and other meats.
Anyway, food was good, especially eaten with rye bread (made our Slavic way which is the best) and after the party ended, I took Lisiecka home and we have been enjoying it a little bit at a time, along with the other 3 sausages.

There is nothing like good food, smooth drink, and fine company when leaves turn golden and red and evenings grow longer and longer. We can only aspire to the feast carried by our Eastern European nobility, be it in Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Slovakia, Hungary, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia and Romania.
until the next time

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Salve,
I must say that my blogging has been rather slow these days, I do hope it will pick up soon but thus far it is a rather snail pace of a movement. Do forgive me.
Of a subejct I intend to cover within next two months or before the end of the calendar year of 2010
- more Saka and Sarmatians, including their horse tack
- North Americana - meaning Native Amerindians, Spanish colonial, Mexican and American horsemen - in part inspired by sculptural work of fantastic artist David Lemon, who also has become a new 'follower of my blog - David's blog here
- Polish, Russian, Lithuanian etc subjects of XVI-XVIII centuries, here dear Samuel has provided me with so much 'ammunition' from Slovakia and former Hungarian Kingdom that I cannot decide where to start
- some Slavic medieval themes - I got some projects in development
God willing :)
Curious thing happened - I was surfing internet and on this website - Russian military history magazine Zeughaus - in their own publishing company book on the battle of Konotop ( Ukrainian-Crimean Tatars and Polish alliance contra MuscovitesAD 1659 ) battle I saw my own artwork, I inquired further and I found that they sued my artwork on the front title page inside and on page 16 within the corpus of the book itself.
The image shows Crimean Tatar warriors on horseback, and it was published in the Infort Editions book titled Biala Cerkiew (important battle of Polish-Cossack wars) - in 2007 - wanax.pl biala-cerkiew-23-25-IX-1651
These are the pages :) :

and page 16

I do not have to add that my name is not mentioned within the book and that I was not asked about the image being included in the publication... instead the publisher's page carries a note that illustrations inside the book were prepared by V. Typikin, artist...
any my original sketch in ink and acrylic - also above another sketch from that book on the Biala Cerkiew battle.

ps I would like to welcome all new 'followers' of this blog - themselves splendid bloggers :)

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Salve,
I have been researching the Russian reitars of the 1653-67 war, that was the war where our Polish-Lithuanian Republic was first invaded by the Tsar of Muscovy Russia ( I use the name Muscovy until the reign of Peter the Great who created Russia, as per Lev Gumilov thesis) then by the Swedes and prince Rakoczi of Transylwania George_II_Rakoczi .
this is the image thus far ...

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Salve.
long time ago I wrote this http://dariocaballeros.blogspot.com/2010/02/uani-introduction.html , so now let us jump to this remarkable book from the end of the XVIII century, when a Polish-Lithuanian Tatar (and Polish) lancer was yet to become the famous ulan [uhlan] of the Napoleonic wars. Note that Prussians were actually great importers of Polish horses in the XVI, XVII and XVIII centuries, and most likely the so called Trakehner horse breed was created by the Prussian breeders out of some foundation mares and sires that were of Polish imports in the XVIII century.

“There was formerly in European armies, a species of cavalry called lancers: they were armed at all points; […] they were all noble or lived nobly, but they could not be employed on all occasions, they were too expensive, each of them was obliged to have two horses for his own person, a large one for battles and tournaments and another for marches and detachments; and beside these, one for the servant who had the care of them: and it was in consequence of the great expence that these troops were discontinued, when the armies were augmented
[our general is obviously simplifying the reason why heavy lancer of XVI and early XVII centuries became obsolete in the Western European theater of war]. It is nevertheless certain, that the lance will always be the Queen of Arms for defensive of this nature of cavalry.”

About Polish-Lithuanian ulans:

“Ulans are nowhere to be found, except in Poland, unless you assimilate them with the pretended Prussian 'Bosniacks'; they have faithfully served the Kings of the House of Saxony [Saxon kings that also were the kings of Polish_Lithuanian Commonwealth in a from of in personal union between the countries, similar to Wladyslaw Jagello] and the present one has three regiments of them in his service; they are well mounted and disciplined, and form an admirable corps of light cavalry: they ought to be all Tartars of Lithuania ( still Muslim), brave, faithful, and steady, and by no means drunkards. There are however amongst them a few Poles; the Respublica [Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth] has also a few corps or 'pulks,' but they are by no means in the same order that the others are. They have preserved their ancient institutions; the Towarischs [towarzysz] or Noble Comrades [who] have their Podstowy [pocztowy] or servants [retainers], who are Poles; the Towarisch are the masters, and the Podstowy the privates, as formerly in France, the latter perform the ordinary service. […] the arms of the masters are, a pike [a lance] with a banderole [pennon], (or small flag) a sabre and pistols; those of the servants the same as the Hussars [sabre, carbine, a pistol or two]. In an action the latter form in second line in two ranks, in small squadrons, and the masters attack or charge in single rank, which was the custom amongst all the Gen's d'Armes [knights and later lancers].”

“no light troops are better appointed or more active or allert on horseback, than the Polish Ulans: the equipage and appointments of the Ulan and his horse, are admirable, commodious and proper: and although I am not very partial to those of the Hungarians, yet I am persuaded it is very proper for several nations, particularly those in which it is national dress.”

a little on the Polish, Tatar, Moldavian horse and Hungarian too:...Polish, Tartar, and Moldavian horses, answer better for them [service as light cavalry] than Hungarian, those being extremely degenerated within these fifty years; without doubt, for want of attention to procure stallions from Turkey, which are found to be the best in the Hungarian Haras (or studs,) and they never had any other, while the Turks were in possession of that country.
and when talking about a light horseman's steed our general states :
[...] for Polish horses, as light, strong, and excellent for all the operations of war.
[...]In a course of 600 paces, a good German horse, in condition, will get before a Polish, Tartar, or other horse of that description : but if the course is continued to a greater distance, the latter will regain its ground, leave the other behind, and continue in wind for a much longer time : and should the heavy horse be forced a little beyond his wind, he becomes insensible to the bit and spur, and looses all his activity.

On a light horseman and his equipment, and Polish [sic!] saddles:For a soldier to be really a light horseman, he must be able to turn his horse quick and short, when in full speed, to raise up and catch any thing from the ground; he will find himself much firmer in his feat, have greater command of his horse, and much more agility in the exercise of his arms, &c. by being mounted on an eastern saddle, that is to say, upon a Hungarian, Turkish, or Polish one [as one can see we Polish people had our own saddles similar to Hungarian and Turkish]; to those who have been accustomed to other saddles, they appear at first to be inconvenient, but they very soon find themselves perfectly at ease in them, and ever after, prefer them to all others; they are very light, cheap, and durable, and do not so often require repairing [sic!] as the others do.

Continuing:A good goat or sheep's skin, should be used instead of a housse [textile], they will cover at the same time, the pistols and the portmanteau [in a Polish and Hungarian fashion, I should add] ; the bridle also ought to be as light as possible, without any unnecessary buckles or straps; there should be but one attached to the pommel of the saddle, to strap on the cloak rolled up before the trooper, which will be very important, to protect his belly from a thrust with the bayonet or sword, the stirrups should be bronzed; and by these means, the trooper, on his arrival at camp or quarters, has but few straps and buckles to clean. He covers his arms, accoutrements, &c. with the goat-skin, and has time to attend to his horse and himself; in short, every thing should be light and proper, without affectation. I have been informed, that except as to the saddles, the English regiments of Eliott, and Burgoyne, are thus equipped.The Hussars do not require tents, [...] no light troops are better appointed or more active or allert on horseback, than the Polish Ulans: the equipage and appointments of the Ulan and his horse, are admirable, commodious and proper...
until the next time :)
ps
Juliusz Kossak's watercolor is to show one of the foremost Polish light horse commander and 'zagończyk' (zagonchikh) of the XVIII century Kazimierz (Casimir) Pulaski, 'father of the American cavalry', hero of USA and Poland. Here our Kazimierz is shown during the action against the Russians near the fortified and very Holy monastery of Częstochowa (where our only Queen of Poland resides :) ), that monastery he successfully defended (for 2 years) against the Russian invaders and their Polish supporters during the Bar Confederacy 1768-72.
..the saddles come from the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw, and represent XVIII century Polish-Lithuanian saddlery, most likely from the old royal city of Lwow (Lviv) :)

Monday, September 27, 2010

Salve,
finishing this Xenophon's horsemanship work with a fragment of a mural (Alexandrovo) painting of Thracian horseman hunting wild boar and a vase painting of Odysseus stealing horses at the bottom

Continuing from Chapter XI:

CHAPTER XII.

Of a horseman's armour and arms.

l. We wish also to show how he should be armed who prepares to encounter danger on horseback.

In the first place, then, we say that his coat of mail should be made to suit his body ; because the whole of the body supports one that fits well, but the shoulders only support one that is too loose; and one that is too tight is a prison, and not a coat of defence.
2. Since the neck, too, is one of the vital parts, we think that a covering should be made for it of the same shape with the neck, rising from the coat of mail; for it will not only be an ornament, but, if it be made as it ought to be, will cover the face of the rider, if he wishes, up to the nose.

3. As for the helmet, we consider that which is of Boeotian manufacture to be the best; for it protects most effectually all the parts above the corslet, and yet does not prevent the wearer from seeing.

The coat of mail, again, should be made in such a way that it may not prevent the horseman from sitting or stooping.

4. About the abdomen, too, and the parts below and around, there should be skirts of such a description and size as to protect the limbs.

5. Since, also, if the left hand should be hurt, it disables the rider, we recommend the armour which has been invented for it, and which is called the hand; for it protects the shoulder, the upper part of the arm, the elbow, and the portion of the arm next to the bridle, and can be either expanded or contracted ; and it also covers the part under the arm which is left unguarded by the coat of mail.

6. The right hand a rider must raise, when he wishes either to hurl a weapon or to strike a blow. Whatever portion of the coat of mail, therefore, would obstruct it, must be removed ; and if in its place a sort of flaps with joints be put, they will, when the arm is raised, unfold at the same time, and, when it is let down, will close.

7. As to the right arm, that sort of defence which is put on it like greaves on the leg appears to us to be better adapted for protecting it than that which is attached to the coat of mail; and the part of the arm which is exposed when the right hand is lifted up must be defended near the coat of mail, with a covering made of calf's skin or of brass; otherwise it will be left unguarded in a most dangerous place.

8. Since, too, if the horse is disabled, the rider will be in extreme peril, it is necessary to arm the horse also with defences for his head, his breast, and his shoulders ; for these assist likewise in guarding the rider's thighs. But of all parts of the horse we take most care to protect his belly, for it is at once a most vital and a most defenceless part; but it is possible to protect it by something connected with the housings.'

9. It is necessary, too, that that which covers the horse's back should be put together in such a way that the rider may have a firmer seat,'' and that the back of the horse may not be galled. As to other parts, also, both horse and horseman should be armed with the same precaution.3

10. The legs and feet will naturally hang down below the covering of the thighs; but these parts may be sufficiently protected, if a sort of boots be constructed for them of the leather of which sandals are made ; for such boots may be at once armour for the legs and shoes for the feet.

11. Such is the armour that may prove, if the gods be propitious, a defence against harm. But to inflict injury on an enemy, we recommend the short curved sword rather than the long straight one; for from a horseman, seated aloft, a blow from a curved sword will be more effective than one from a straight sword.

12. Instead of a reed-like spear, as it is weak and inconvenient to carry, we rather approve of two javelins of cornel wood; for a skillful thrower may hurl one of these, and use the other against assailants either in front, or flank, or rear. They are at once stronger than a spear, and more easily carried.

13. We approve of the hurling of a javelin from a great distance; for by that means more time is allowed for throwing it and for taking another weapon. We shall intimate in a few words how the javelin may be hurled with the greatest effect. If the rider advance his left side, at the same time drawing back his right, and rising on his thighs, and launch his weapon with its point directed a little upwards, he will thus send it with the greatest force and to the greatest distance ; and he will send it with the truest aim, if the point, as it is discharged, is directed steadily to the mark.

14. Let these admonitions, and instructions, and exercises be considered sufficient to be prescribed for a private individual. What it is proper for a commander of cavalry to know and to do, is set forth in another treatise.

Of teaching a horse his paces. How to make him assume showy attitudes.

1. But if a person wishes to possess a horse that is fit for processions, and of lofty and magnificent bearing, such qualities are not to be found in every horse, for he must be one that is of a noble spirit and strong frame.

2. But what some suppose, that a horse which has suppleness of leg will also be able to rear his body high, is not the case; the truth rather is, that it must be a horse which has flexible, short, and strong loins (we do not mean the part by the tail, but that which is between the ribs and the haunches, at the belly), for such a horse will be able to extend his hinder legs far forward under him. 3. If a rider, then, when the horse has his hind legs thus under him, should pull him up with the bridle, he rests his hinder parts on his heels, and rears up the fore part of his body, so that his belly is seen by those in front of him. But when he does this, it is proper to give him the bridle, that he may assume of his own accord the attitudes most graceful in a horse, and appear to the spectators to do so.

4. There are people who teach horses thus to rise, some by striking them on the fetlocks with a stick, some by directing a man, who runs at the side for that purpose, to hit them on the upper part of the legs.

5.We however consider it the best mode of instruction, as we are perpetually saying, that when ever a horse acts agreeably to the wishes of his rider, it should follow that he receive some indulgence from him.

6. For what a horse does under compulsion, as Simon also observes, he does without understanding, and with no more grace than a dancer would display if a person should whip and spur him during his performance; since both horse and man, when suffering such treatment, would exhibit more ungraceful than graceful gestures. But the rider ought to teach a horse by signs to assume of his own accord all his most beautiful and showy attitudes.

7. If, then, when he is exercised, he be ridden till he is quite in a perspiration, and the rider, as soon as he raises himself gracefully, dismounts and unbridles him, he may feel assured that the horse will always be ready to rear himself of his own accord.

8. It is upon horses of this kind that gods and heroes are painted riding, and men who are able to manage them skilfully are regarded as deserving of admiration.

9.So extremely beautiful, and admirable, and noble a sight is a horse that bears himself superbly, that he fixes the gaze of all who see him, both young and old; no one, indeed, leaves him, or is tired of contemplating him, as long as he continues to display his magnificent attitudes.

10. If it should ever happen to the possessor of such a horse to be a phylarch or hipparch, he ought not to make it his study that he alone may enjoy distinction, but rather that all the cavalry under his command may be deserving of admiration,

11. Should such a horse precede the rest, [as people esteem such horses most,] one that, as he advances, rears himself very high and very frequently, it is plain that the other horses would follow him at a slow pace ; but what striking attraction could there be in such a spectacle ?

12. If, however, while you animate your steed, you lead neither with too great quickness nor with too great slowness, but just as horses appear most lively and formidable, and best adapted for exertion, if, I say, you precede the other horses in this manner, the march of the whole troop will be uniform, and even the very neighing and snorting of the horses will be n concert, so that not only the commander himself, but the whole troop, will present an admirable spectacle.

13. If a person be fortunate in purchasing horses, and bring them up to be able to endure fatigue, and train them properly, not only in exercises for war, but in manoeuvres for parade, and in service in the field, what can prevent him, unless some god be adverse to his endeavours, from rendering his horses of far greater value than they were when he took them under his care, or from having not only estimable horses, but being himself greatly admired for his skill in the art of horsemanship.

About Me

Czołem/Salve, fellow net traveler... I am Dariusz aka Dario and this is my meydân. Born in the year of the Fire Horse hence I never tire of admiring, drawing & painting or sculpting horses, or just researching the history of equus cabalus, especially in the mounted warrior context. My drawings and paintings - prints - are available for sale (I use MyPaint, Krita & GIMP), I also do commissioned illustration etc, so if you need to contact me regarding a purchase, commission, or any other matter, do email me: darajawausz[at]gmail [dot] com
Ciao - Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas